The Magazine Thing

On Splitcoaststampers there is a challenge. A very good challenge. Make 10 Christmas cards a month until December to reduce holiday stress. A very good and noble challenge. I signed up in December after a month of frantic creation. Then, late February arrived and I suddenly realized the thought of the challenge had fallen out my left ear!! Nothing accomplished toward Christmas cards.

I thought I'd be clever and create an OSW (one-sheet-wonder = DIY designer paper) in pretty SU! Cool Caribbean, Almost Amythest and Bashful Blue. Very lovely and pretty. Then I decided to be frugal and limit myself to scraps for the rest of the card parts. I found brown, a variation on brown, dark blue, brown, copper(brown with sparkle) and a little piece of brown at the bottom of the now less bulgy scrap folder. Who was I kidding?!!! My vision was for pretty, not --- BROWN!!!! I am trying to grow. Stretching is uncomfortable for me. I like my card creation visions. They are my happy place. I don't necessarily want to change my vision. My little pile sat for 2 days as I wrestled with this dilemma.

In a marathon card making session, I finished all 12 (NOT 10, mind you!) in 2 days. I was happy with the outcome since I sponged the daylights out of my OSW to make it go with the BROWN! I uploaded onto splitcoast and darn near broke my arm patting myself on the back for getting the task done.

A week later I received a private message from the managing editor of a nationally distributed papercrafting/altered art magazine asking if I might consider submitting this BROWN set for publication - they are doing an article on sponging. After I got up from falling off my chair, I gave it thought for a week. I pm'd her and said, "sure, which ones would you like me to send?" I received her reply, and again fell off my chair. My choice from the brown set and 2-3 more unusual colour groupings for a total of 10-15 cards!!!!!!!

It's been 2 weeks, and I finally started on them today (why rush into these things?...). I think these qualify as unusual colour groupings. Olive, BROWN, ruby red, marigold morning. I like how each of the central images has a luminescent quality. I sponged the line images. All sponge, no blender pens, no aquapainters... I even stamped and sponged on my new Stella Ruby paper from Basic Grey. GASP!!!

I think I am happy with this set now that I am done with it. I feel like stamping is my alter ego. I like pretty colours - my house is all butter yellow, sky blue and grass green. Lovely, soothing...

With stamping I can grunge everything! Distress! Sponge! Destruct! Work to dirty things up as much as I work to keep my house clean.

I saw a stamp that says cleaning a house with children in it is like trying to staple jello to a tree - made me laugh! My house isn't clean - not filthy, but not clean. It's lived in.

I have no idea if these will reach publication but I'm hopeful. I have 2 sets to go. This is fun work - it's always good to make your hobby your work, I think. Now, what to do? What to do?... Stay tuned for the continuing saga...